Monday, March 19, 2007

LONDON - 54-year-old Paul Trinder has recalled a harrowing experience when he was forced to spend five hours with a corpse while traveling First Class on British Airways. Trinder woke up on the flight only to mutely witness as the crew strapped the body of a dead woman to his next seat.The woman had apparently died just after take off. "I woke to see cabin crew manoeuvring what looked like a sack of potatoes into the seat. Slowly, through the darkness, I realized it was a body. At first, I thought I was dreaming. Then I was convinced it was a big wind-up," Trinder said of his experience on the Delhi-Heathrow flight. The Guardian reports that the incident took place last week. He added that he was frightened the body was decomposing. The relatives of the dead passenger also kept wailing throughout the flight, which further depressed him."The corpse was strapped into the seat but because of turbulence it kept slipping down on to the floor. It was horrific. The body had to be wedged in place with lots of pillows," he recalled. "Then the relatives were allowed to sit in First Class and spent the next five hours wailing and weeping."BA has apologized for the incident, "We apologise, but our crew were working in difficult circumstances and chose the option they thought would cause least disruption," a spokesperson said in a statement.